Contact Expert Versioning and Hotfix Releasing Strategy
Contact Expert v6.1 for Skype for Business Server
Versioning Strategy
Starting from v5.9, Contact Expert version numbers have the following format:
v<major>.<minor>
Major Version
The first number represents the major version. When this number is increased, a new major version is introduced. Major versions contain significant changes in the product such as an extensive set of significant new features, new architecture or completely redesigned software components. Consequently a new major version might be backward incompatible with the previous major version (but not necessarily).
Minor Version
The second number represents the minor version which is increased when less significant features are added to the product.
Cumulative Hotfixes
In addition to minor versions, Geomant also releases cumulative hotfix packages to provide quick fixes to serious problems that should not wait until the next minor release. These hotfix packages are tied to a specific minor version and contain the fixes of all the previous hotfix packages for this minor version.
Version Compatibility and Upgrade Strategy
When upgrading, consider the difference ("distance") between the old and the new version. If the upgrade is within the same major version then we are talking about a minor version upgrade. If the distance between the old and new version overlaps at least one major version, then this is a major version upgrade.
Minor versions are always backward compatible. Example
- v6.0 - major version (architectural changes & new features & bug fixes; not compatible with v5.x)
- v6.1 - minor version (new features & bug fixes; compatible with v6.x)
A clean and a cumulative upgrade installation media is created for each major and minor version, so every package contains the fixes and feature additions of all previous releases. However Geomant proceeds to perform exhaustive compatibility tests with the last 2 minor versions only, therefore if the distance between your 6.x version and the currently available latest 6.x is greater than 2 minor versions, then you might need gradual, step-by-step upgrades.
Also, since major versions usually bring architectural changes that make them backward incompatible, the old version must be completely uninstalled and the new version must be installed from a clean installation package. An upgrade install is typically not usable in such cases. When a major upgrade (thus a clean install) is due, the system typically have accumulated a number of previous minor upgrades all of which must be uninstalled individually starting from the most recent. Or, as an alternative, instead of uninstalling all the existing upgrades, the recommended way is reinstalling Contact Expert on a clean operating system (restored from a previous snapshot or installed newly).
Client/Server Version Compatibility
Please note that if you upgrade Contact Expert server components to a new minor version, all Contact Expert agent client applications must also be updated at the same time. Older clients will not work with a new minor version of Contact Expert server.
However, the maintenance version of the server and the client does not matter as long as they have the same minor version. In other words, each client having the same minor version as the server's minor version is always compatible with the server, regardless of the maintenance version.
Database Version Compatibility
Contact Expert databases are not removed or altered during a minor upgrade or uninstall process, therefore all the configuration data, except for the ones entered during an installation, are left intact. This includes all the business related data such as agent, campaign, contact and historical data.
Since a major upgrade typically contains database schema changes which might cause potential data loss, Contact Expert databases will need to be updated to reach compatibility with the new major version to be installed. This can be achieved by using the SQL scripts from the upgrade installation package of the concerned major version.